Tour Horizont Regions: (Pilis) Buda Hills

The eighth (and last) region covered by the 2026 Tour Horizont. This is the 16th section of the Horizont bicycle tour route.
🚴 Distance: 59,4 km I 🚵 Elevation gain: 932 m I 💪 Difficulty: 6/10

There is no denying that this section could partly be considered Pilis territory — in fact, it skirts along the mountain’s very edge — but let’s mostly call it Buda Hills, because it never truly conquers the Pilis itself. Plenty of other things are conquered instead.

The route opens with a pleasant surprise: a playful sandy singletrack leading from Dorog toward Kesztölc. Here, several kinds of mementos evoke the past: mining days, winemaking traditions, and former religious life, since around 1250 the diligent Pauline monks built their first monastery here at Klastrompuszta under the leadership of Blessed Eusebius.

The village itself was first mentioned in writing in 1075. Strange to think that Kesztölc already existed when most of history had not even happened yet — or that people lived here four hundred years before Christopher Columbus set out to complicate life for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas.

While pondering thoughts like these, both time and the few hundred meters of climbing toward the Blessed Virgin Chapel of Pilisszántó pass quickly. More precisely, toward the chapel, because actually visiting it is optional homework. Still, the gravel is immaculate and the scenery beautiful — and on a bike tour, what more could one ask for?

Up in Pilisszántó there is the Felső Kocsma (“Upper Pub”), legendary in certain circles. Others prefer the greengrocer combined with a bakery “down below.” Anyone who studies the elevation profile with moderate attention will understand exactly what those distinctions mean.

The distant hump of Pilis Peak, lime kilns, stone quarries, and the Iluska Spring then try to distract riders from the fact that Pilisvörösvár was not built on flat ground either. Everyone may take comfort in knowing that the route would not be any easier in reverse direction — though the pine trees glowing beside the chalk-white gravel are so beautiful that it almost makes up for it.

After Pilisszentiván, the atmosphere feels a bit like 28 Days Later, but there is no reason for concern: the area dotted with shot-up buildings is today officially designated as a private forestry road for cycling. Those who turn their heads carefully may catch one final glimpse of the Kevély Hills’ double camel-hump silhouette, and after a thorn puncture and a glance toward Meszes Hill comes the climb through Mária Valley — a valley so persistent that, after enough pedaling, it somehow turns into a plateau. Sometimes the gravel is so loose it feels like riding on a mattress, elsewhere it becomes a racecourse carved by water runoff. The summit does not surrender easily, but beyond it, all roads lead to Nagykovácsi.

From there, there is truly not much left. The bike almost rolls through the Remete Gorge by itself — perhaps by then it is no longer the legs doing the work, but the heart, pounding hard after so many adventures as it arrives at the finish line.